Daan
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Posts posted by Daan
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15 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:
The difference is both of those are at least somewhat suited to your purpose - the Bex may not be everyone's idea of a practical family car but it does at least do everything you need and will basically last forever. A Gem is small, cheap, and fun as a runabout.
A 101 is not a practical vehicle for almost any modern purpose - its original purpose was overtaken by either better trucks or the 130 and as I said previously almost everything about it is "wrong" for what you want, other than the fact it's a large box on wheels which is true of trucks, vans, ambulances, fire engines, etc. as well. True it's got character, but you're sacrificing a hell of a lot for it.
You're somewhat sensitive to running costs, ferry costs on family visits, etc. so a 101 is going to be fairly hideous on fuel and the eventual height/length may land you with a more expensive ferry ticket anyway.
A caravan behind the bex gives you more space/storage in the camping part, more space in the car part, and means you can park the van & go out & about (or one of you can go to the shops while the other stays with the van), plus when it's not in use it's a lower maintenance thing to keep stored. I know you hate them but caravans are incredibly practical for family trips.
@steve b don't worry I know Mike far too well, if it wasn't for all this virus nonsense we'd be having this conversation in the pub or drinking tea in his kitchen and saving the rest of you the bother
I do find it an interesting discussion to have, there's a lot of "overland" rigs and home-built campers etc. out there that don't really fit the use-case at all but people either fall for the marketing / instagram lifestyle posts, the groupthink (must have a £2k roof top tent and £5k sankey trailer and still end up cooking/washing outdoors and having to fold a damp tent up every day), or as we see here the heart rules over the head and a cool vehicle trumps practicality... and I'm in no way claiming that my ambulance is practical, it's absolutely a "heart" purchase, but we did have a LOT of the same discussions before buying it as are going on in this thread.
We very nearly bought a very cool 109 ambulance, but that suffered a similar practicality deficit to a 101 - it would need an engine+gearbox swap if you wanted to be able to press on to get somewhere, it had drum brakes, no PAS, the rear box was only just enough for 2 people travelling very light (having a toilet of some sort was a non-negotiable requirement, which eats a significant space), and it was still strong money (it sold on eBay for more than we paid for our 127). The 127 makes quite a few sacrifices over a LWB Sprinter (which would be my #1 sensible choice) but it's still very tolerable and the fun-factor outweighs them.
I forget who in this thread said "it's about the journey", while I agree with that in principle, in practice sometimes you just need to tuck 1000 miles of dull motorway miles away as quickly as possible to get where you actually want to be - and I know in Mike's case he needs to be able to get the family either up to Scotland or down to Bulgaria with whatever vehicle he ends up with. Spending a week chugging along at 55mph slipstreaming the HGV's is not my idea of an inspirational journey, and every time we cruise past a classic VW camper wheezing along at 52mph flat-out and going deaf doing it I am quite glad I fitted the V8. Being able to clip along at the speed limit can make the difference between a single long day of driving and two slightly shorter days of driving plus a motel/campsite stay, and that can add up over long distances in time & money.
This is the long version of what I was saying.
9 hours ago, miketomcat said:Yeah but practicality aside they look cool.
Mike.
I will end up building something in the future just don't know what or when at this point.
True, keep us updated on your totally impractical but cool looking machine!
6 hours ago, Snagger said:I swapped the diffs between 109 and 110 Salisbury axles and didn’t even need to alter the shims. There is a difference in the carriers between 4.71 and 3.54 diffs, though - the ring gear flange is set at different positions to allow for the different pinion head diameter, the 4.71 diff having its flange around an inch closer to the pinion axis, so you have to swap the whole diff for significant ratio changes. I don’t know if there is a third specification diff centre for the even lower ratio of the 101 axles or whether they used 109 diffs with very thick ring gears.
What I thought. It will go on, probably use the defender diff carrier and swap in the 101 side gears in or something like that.
Daan
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Pictures please!
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Can't you just drive the car to a bead blaster and let him blast the outside?
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14 hours ago, landroversforever said:
Front Doors
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a message to an ebay seller yielded a guesstimate of 5-10kg, but not sure.17.5kg - Glazed top 7.5kg (with 110 door mirror). Bottom with fixtures 10kg - Pre-Puma door -
- Puma Door - I've weighed at 26kg (with manual window, mirror and hinge)
Rear Door
- Pre 02 (square bottom glass corners) - 17kg with no door card or spare wheel mount - Thanks Giles.
- Post 02 (round bottom glass corners) - 23kg door card, glass, rear wiper and brake light but no wheel carrier
Series doors all the way! especially since the push button usually fails the first time it meets a tree, where as the recessed door handles of a series (or early 90/110) will work regardless how bend the door is.
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19 minutes ago, Peaklander said:
So whatever you do, don't spend too long doing it. There's only a few trips available with the four of you and then it will probably be two.
I don't subscribe to the "get there quickly" view unless your holiday is "there" and not "all the way there and back". We love exploring the back roads and only make a rough plan and then allow ourselves to explore along the rough route.
I understand the 'it's the journey rather than the destination' approach, and there are always areas where I would like to stay longer If I had time. But this is where always the sticking point comes for me: It somehow always end up having to go back home as work or school starts on monday. Sure, taking a week or two to get there and back again would be great. But it won't happen anytime soon. Maybe in 20 years time When I retire.
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On 12/14/2020 at 6:44 AM, miketomcat said:
Given that my mother in law is on the Hebrides, father in law is in Bulgaria and step brothers in Greece that's several trips that are considerably easier if you can just park roll in the back and sleep.
I am going to be realistic for a moment and say that any of these trips in A 101 will be a painfull experience in my opinion and very costly in fuel no matter what engine you use. Also, if you do 60MPH (I'd say is realistic), you are going to spend several days to get there, loosing valuable holiday time.
For trips above I would get an audi allroad or similar, zoom at a ton over the autobahn and get there in about half the time. spend the money you save on some nice B&Bs along the way. I do remember driving to Czech (where the in laws live) a few times.
Best time door to door we managed was 17 hours non stop in a Skoda Octavia, which was fast. We swapped seats every 2 hours. And Czech is only halfway to Greece. I learned from that that faster is going to help a lot on those distances.
101s have their place, if you do a trip through the Sahara or something like that. That pretty much makes the LPG option a waste of time in my opinion. I have got the impression that the 101 out of that video is not really meant to go anywhere remote somehow. Lovely piece of work but what is it meant to do?
Anyway, knowing you, you are going to ignore all this and go ahead
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Looking forward to the end result!
Daan
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4 hours ago, Ed Poore said:
According to this 5.4:1 but I guess they have taller wheels as standard? Looks to be 9x16s so roughly 34"?
Although almost nothing else from anothe landrove fits, I reckon 3.54 ring and pinions from a 110 salisbury fits.
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On 9/30/2020 at 10:27 PM, Tanuki said:
I'm wondering if there's a way round this by taxing it as a 'camion' or "break" or 'fourgon' or "Commerciale" or "Derives V.P." or something?
Sure, it may require the rear seats being removed and the rear door/window-glass being rendered 85%-opaque - I remember in the 1970s/80s seeing big Citroen estate-cars with the side-glass panelled-out for tax-purposes.Dutch prices:
cheapest 90: 95.150 euro, roadtax 2736 euro
cheapest 110: 102.325 euro, roadtax 2884 euro
The plug in hybrids are slightly better due to tax breaks.
There is also the problem of income tax increase when you have it as a companycar, which is eye-watering.
The commercial versions are about 50% of these prices, however you need to be a registered ltd company to be using the lower road tax bracket.
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I'd say so.
Daan
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2 hours ago, daveturnbull said:Any more updates on this Daan? I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Glad to hear you have not forgotten about my project! I have many updates in my head, but nothing physical to show you unfortunately.
All my spare time is on the Landy right now, but the end of this is in sight. Hoping for an MOT this side of christmas
As a bit of a test I have ordered a couple of Mahindra bits from an indian Ebay shop: Clutch plate, steering ball joints and heavy duty shackles. I really wondered how that was going to turn out, but they arrived 2 weeks later.
The quality of the parts looks good to me, and they are about 1/3rd of the prize of the identical jeep CJ parts.
The bit that puzzles me is that of the free postage from india; quite how that works is beyond me. Anyway, that test was successful, so that route to get mahindra parts is working!
Daan
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Welcome to the fold!
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On 12/6/2020 at 4:37 PM, FridgeFreezer said:
Shame about that scruffy git in Halfordskis
did you get a picture of the Lada fan that fitted the 200TDi perfectly?
Indeed, he is making a gesture referring to No1. I must have a picture of this somewhere, but not to hand i am afraid.
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19 hours ago, Chris Hall said:
Does it look like there is a gap between the doortop and bottom? I'd say if you move the bulkhead forward and move the door back ward on the hinges, it is not far off. It is a landy, and panel fit of the factory was never that good; using parts from different sources is not helping the cause either. i'd say there is a solution with what you have.
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Shorter version of Fridges video on you tube:
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With regards to the reliability, I suppose the car you are intending to use has been used in UK events before? Reason I ask is that it is probably wise to take with you equipment that is proven to work reliably in the past; So no new projects like winches etc, that has not been proven. Ladoga cannot be a test ground basically; you have to be confident that what you bring is reliable.
The stages are about 30km per day, from memory, with an 8 hour DNF time. More than you ever do in a weekend in a UK event. And then do it again tomorrow. and the day after.
The way I approach these events usually is not to improve the car, but to service it very well. For ladoga, the only thing we changed was the tyres and we added a tank guard.
I dug up the thread of preparing the car:
No major projects, I just replaced a lot of parts that might go wrong for new ones. I decided to go for the mudzillas in the same diameter as my simex tyres but 3" wider. I knew 35" would be reliable (I did not take a spare diff) and the wider footprint would give me more flotation, together with the option of airing down to almost nothing. The saley wheels are modular rims (8x15) that are cut in half with flanges welded in to create a split rim and 16" PVC drain pipe as inserts. The tyres and wheels performed faultless.
Obviously, the approach of fitting new parts didn't stop me having problems. In hindsight I would have bought a genuine new alternator and added a guard around the sump.
Official 2009 footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmBmGW9SVls&list=PLzdd2_OztTmSPz-nDbFPfTGgK4bVjnAuI&index=40
Only part3 sees some decent action, the other parts are mainly russian chat.
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15 hours ago, Jimmymad99 said:
Love this car; mostly build out of aluminium, but mainly home build; 1200 kg, with VW TDI I believe.
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I would fit a new bowmotor.
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43 minutes ago, Jimmymad99 said:
I'd love to see the maps
Did Fridge tell you about the GPS receiver and laptop you need? I got a used one on ebay that worked well.
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Ordinary 02 phone worked almost everywhere I think. We had no other communications, buy a local pay as you go card to save money. You are not that far away from civilisation, it is not the jungle.
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2 minutes ago, Jimmymad99 said:
Our one big problem is no tech crew we are going on our own backs we tried to go 10 years ago but failed after both me and co pilot got insured
So wear do you guys leave your trailers ect once u made it over there or do your tech end up towing them around
@Daan did you carry all your spares and camping kit with ?
@Escape what did u do carry all your kits and spares or did u have help
Yes, we carried everything on board. We drove the car to harwich (failed alternator 1 mile before the ferry). shoelaced the waterpump to get to ferry, which we made with 10 seconds spare.
Got a new alternator in holland, carried on to travemunde to take ferry to helsinki. from there drive to st petersburg in a day. Competing went ok untill we also lost all electrics on day 4, causing us to go over time. We removed the plunger from the fuel pump and got a competitor to tow start us, and finish the stage like that. It was a shame as we were in 4th place, with 3rd in sight, but we dropped to 6th, only due to 1 min over time at the stage finish.
Onday 5 we broke a cambelt due to the cam cover seal failed and cam cover full of muddy water. Luckily it broke driving in camp, so we could fix it in the evening.
The alternator and cambelt failure were particularly gutting, as both were new/rebuild as part of our preparations before we set of.
One deep river crossing (centre of steering wheel) also took out our fan; We drew a fan shape in the russian halfords store, and the serving lady found us a Lada fan; loo and behold the bolt pattern is almost the same as a defender waterpump pouly, so we fitted that.
We also noticed a slight flicker of the oil pressure light on the last day. We investigated, but there was oil pressure, so we continued; this proved to be a mistake, as we did a big end bearing on the way home, 50 miles before the border to finland. Dan and jen towed us to helsinki, for which I am forever gratefull. We investigated here, and it showed that the sump had been clouted by a large rock, partly blocking the sif, starving the engine of oil.
on the day we left home I arranged european brake down cover with the AA; It proved the best £70 I spend, as they delivered my car to my front door 3 weeks later and paid for my plane ticket as well.
Writing all this, it reminds me as action packed in every possible way, it was a great experience which I would not want to have missed.
But as you can see, as a whole the thing is rather draining on the mind/wallet/social life and therefore I have come to the conclusion my life is complicated enough without these events! I have done RFC in Malaysia, Ladoga and Croatia trophy and they all have similar stories. Great to have done it but just the thought of going back there again makes me feel tired. Maybe it is just my old age!
That said, you either do it, or spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been.
Daan
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10 minutes ago, Jimmymad99 said:
I will be carrying spares got full ashcroft cvs shafts plus full set of spares 4.75 kam ring pinion pegged with the strong old school electric diff locks
Iv got a par of hydraulic type r winches on at moment but busy machining up god winch
Not shaw what's best or run one of each
Build thread required! I'd say the hydraulic winches are more use to you in a swamp, you need the finest degree of control, and having a pair means you carry a spare.
But I do want to see your god winch!
You also need to keep in mind, you might get in a situation were you are stuck in a swamp and all you have is a 1" thick tree to winch off. You need the most controllable winch in this situation. Dug a trench about 4 inches below swamp level to have a strop as low down as you can and get your co driver to bend the tree in the opposite way of the pulling direction. You get enough pulling power out of this, as the tree roots could be 10 metre deep.
Also, I had winch extension cables in case I got stuck in a swamp, like this:https://www.winchshop.co.uk/collections/webbing/products/50mm-webbing-with-hook
I had 3 x 180 ft and 2x 90 ft with a loop sown in the ends. The idea was you could rig them all up to about 800ft (including the winch cable), and having multiples of 90 ft, you could pick over to the next extension. (the winch has 100 ft of cable).
I only used 1 extension of 90 ft, and that was on the rear winch, when the front of the car had sunk in the swamp (bonnet under). There happened to be a tree behind us.
Also crucial are beadlocks, can you air down to 2 psi without the tyres coming of the wheels?
The problems of a computer controlled TD5 I take it you are aware of and can be solved with the ECU and throttle pedal high up and I would want some form of diagnostics in case it stops working.
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23 minutes ago, Jimmymad99 said:
Some advice hear would be great on group to select we are number 755 on entrance but waiting for paper work to select group its either open adventure or euro to chose from the euro is for trucks over 2100kg but it only has 100-200m swamp runs wear as open adventure follows tr2 route and we are running on 38.5 trep muds ?
I'd say euro is a good starting point if it is your first go. On the other hand, if you do open adventure, you do TR2 tracks which are done with cars on 36" tyres. You are allowed to run your 38.5 tyres on this course so should be ok.
The only reservation I have is running 38.5 inch tyres on land rover axles; you are bound to find the weak spot, so carry spares for anything that is likely to break. Either way, you need spares for anything on the truck likely to break, and have all potential scenarios of failure in you head and have a plan what you are going to do about it, should they happen.
Daan
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1 hour ago, Escape said:
Well, if we're sharing pictures, I can't stay idle. 🙂
And to complete my (our) story and give some background:
First year (2009), after meeting HOFS of course, we competed with 2 vehicles (Def 90 and Disco 1) + 2 support cars (2 x RRC). The idea was to run Tourism and Tourism Open but we ended up in Raid, amongst a bunch of portal axled trucks... And got more than we could handle, 48h+ to get out of the swamp of stage 1. But we did have fun, sort of. Enough for me to want to go back.
Filip
Filip, maybe you can share for the OP what failures you had in 2009, as the spec of your car is almost identical to his car.
Daan
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5 hours ago, Jimmymad99 said:
Euro adventures open
This is not what you entered is it?
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V5 question manual to auto
in International Forum
Posted
I suppose the fact the V5 does not mention what gearbox you have does not mean your car is not known. It usually reveres to a document where all specs of the car are are logged.
That is not to say you cannot divert from it, like changing the tire size will also alter the vehicle from it's original spec but we don't get the spec altered either. So I 'don't think changing the gearbox is an issue.